Monday, May 31, 2010

Fried Shark (Ikan Yu) with Tamarind Recipe

Shark meat has nice texture and is very tasty although sometimes it tends to have a little fishy smell. The meat is almost the same as that of a stingray. Therefore to avoid this, a shark meat dish should be eaten while still hot. Sharks have very tiny scales and they are aligned in such manner that allows them to have aerodynamics features which make them able to swim at high speed. It is not easy to remove this tiny sand like scales using the normal scraping method. The trick is to use boiling hot water to pour it on the fish and the scales would come out easily when you scrape it with a knife. Another easier way is to just remove the leather like skin all together. I bought these whole sharks from the wet market, already cleaned and with all the skins removed. They only have one long cartilage back bone in the middle and there are no other small bones at all. Therefore, it is very easy to eat this small whole shark. Sometimes I would fry them with Chinese salted vegetables (kiam chye) but this time around I just marinated the sharks with tamarind and deep fried them in hot oil. When I was a kid, my mom used to cook shark this way for me and shark meat used to be one of my favourite. Luckily I didn’t grow and become a loan shark (Ah Long), ha ha ha! To all the shark fins critics and environmentalists out there, we do eat the shark meat and nothing goes to waste!

Ingredients
Sharks, (ikan yu, whole fish or cuts), 7pcs
Tamarind, 1 tablespoon Dark Soya sauce, ½ teaspoon
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Marinade the shark meat with tamarind, dark soya sauce, salt and sugar. Heat up wok and put in some vegetable oil. Deep fry the shark until it turn slightly dark in colour. Serve while still hot.

26 comments:

Angie's Recipes said...

Goes really good with some cold beer for a football night!

fufu said...

would be nice if eaten with porridge ya :) yum yum :p

tuti said...

*knock knock door at 2.15 am*
ah long ah. ah long.. open door.
i need big loan.

smallkucing said...

saw a lot being sold in Oasar but didnt buy. Beh tahan la if got fishy smell.

Christine said...

nice simple recipe. Yes, I just read they've banned shark fin from Hawaii!

manglish said...

i like them deep fried...hehehe with ginger.....my mum used to do it when i was younger....

Love2cook Malaysia said...

My fav shark!!! ooo yummmm...

Reanaclaire said...

fish eaten hot is always tastier... i have yet to try this method... but then, i seldom buy sharkfish :)

Anonymous said...

It certainly looks delicious. Never buy shark...but the other day, I bought some umai (raw fish) made from shark...and surprisingly, no smell at all. Must be all the calamansi lime juice and the onions - already neutralised.

Sook said...

Oh how interesting! I call this real cooking. :)

Anonymous said...

I heard there's a restaurant in Kepong serving steamed shark meat. Heard that it's tasty. Have never tasted before though.

Somewhere in Singapore said...

I have not try this b4...

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

This is the first time i see people cook shark fish. I wonder how it taste like.

Merryn said...

wow.. sharks? cool.. never tried this before.. hmm...

[SK] said...

oh?? that is shark?? how come so small one, or they are baby sharks?? i remember having them somewhere in Kuala Selangor many years ago..

penny aka jeroxie said...

What kind of shark? Never tried it before.

Suhaina said...

Looks nice, but never had it before.

cleffairy said...

Shark... let's chomp chomp on them! Whahahha... we human are incredible, aren't we, pete? i bet now if dinosaur still exists, we oso will makan them! Aiyo... screw the enviromentalist la... all NATO wan!

Caroline said...

i never seen my mom bought any shark meat yet, or maybe cz am never go to wet market? lol.

its kinda easy to make it huh? simple yet tempt me so much!

Alice Law said...

Wah, your shark looks delicious as it has been grilled!

Btw, I'm here to thanks you for the brinjal tips! I just put it to test this evening, the outcome is excellent! The brinjal was soft and smooth, moreoever it still purplish in colour. Before I learnt from you, the dish used to be 'braown', lol!T-T My husband, I and my girl Juan loved it to bits, thanksX100!

Have a nice day to you!

xin said...

i have never eaten small sharks like these before. i have had similar fish which looked like this, but with tonnes of bones! i must ask my mom to buy this :D

eunice said...

wah now u start cooking ah Long LOL
Those sharks r little sharks? So small. Glad that u eat the shark cos I like shark fins :P

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

Wowie shark meat fried with kiam chye mama mia longgggg time have not eaten. Great post on the de-scaling the shark. tQ.

Ayie said...

i never tried shark meat too... maybe i'll pass on that too

Chetana Suvarna Ganatra said...

Hey Pete,
First time to ur cool space...like the way you write.
U hv a real good collection of recipes...between a food blogger from down under.
Following you, will be back.
Cheers,
Chetana
www.myrecipegalore.blogspot.com

MaryMoh said...

When I saw the title I thought I would see big sharks...haha. Can't blame me.....had been watching JAW in TV recently!